Robert Bowman with his sponsored tarp

The Bowmans in Calgary

Members of the famous horse driving trials family from Cumbria, the Bowmans, have recently had the experience of a lifetime - taking part in "Chuck Wagon Racing" at the Calgary Stampede in Canada. The Bowmans were the first Europeans to be invited to take part in this spectacular event.

Senior member George Bowman, who has been the British National Champion no less than 17 times, was accompanied by his sons, George Jnr and Barnaby, and his brother Robert. They met up with one of Canada’s most famous chuck wagon racing families, 11 times Chuck Wagon Racing World Champions the Sutherlands; Kelly, his son Mark, brother Kirk and Kirk’s son Mitch.

In order to raise the profile of Horse Driving Trials, BHDTA's Chris Hillman wanted to get the sport better exposure on television and he conceived the idea of an exchange between a Horse Driving Trials competitor from the UK and an exponent of Chuck Wagon Racing in Canada. A number of travel related companies have funded the making of a four-part TV documentary, featuring an exchange of the disciplines, which is to be aired later in the year.

Left to right: Kelly Sutherland (11 times World Champion and 2011 Calgary Stampede winner), Mitch Sutherland, George Bowman (17 times British Champion), Mark Sutherland, Barnaby Bowman, Young George Bowman, Kirk Sutherland and Robert Bowman.

In May the Bowmans travelled to Alberta to meet the Sutherland family. They discovered very quickly that Chuck Wagon Racing is a totally alien driving discipline compared to Driving Trials. Contact and sensitivity are not in the Chuck Wagon Racing vocabulary. Described by Kelly Sutherland as a "controlled runaway", 4 competitors, each with 2 outriders, navigate a figure of eight course round two barrels, pulling g-forces greater than a Formula 1 car, before throwing the reins at the horses for a flat out dash round a half mile oval track. For more visit www.wpca.com

On each of the first four days, one of the Bowmans did a Demonstration Race against the clock in front of a capacity crowd of 25,000 spectators. As well as the documentary production team, ITV Tyne Tees also travelled with the Bowmans and have run a 4 minute mini-series during their regional news programme.

Under the watchful eye of Kirk Sutherland, Robert Bowman tries his hand at chuck-wagon racing.

The second half of the exchange of disciplines will take place in September, when the Sutherlands come the UK to take part with the Bowmans in the BHDTA National Driving Trials Championships at Windsor, before heading north to drive a 150 year-old stagecoach between Newcastle and Carlisle.